Watch: Trevor Noah takes on Starbucks for arresting two black men in Philadelphia for doing nothing
The Daily Show host even suggested having a 911 operator who can deal with white people’s emergencies.
A Starbucks outlet in Philadelphia became the subject of public anger – and deservedly – after a manager had two black men arrested for “hanging out in the store”. Massive outrage led Kevin Johnson, CEO of the popular coffee chain, to not only apologise but also to announce he would close eight thousand stores for an afternoon in May to train baristas on how to recognise and prevent racial bias, reported the Washington Post.
A customer who was at the store posted the video on twitter showing the men being handcuffed and escorted out the store by policemen. The video has been viewed over ten million times.
Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, wasn’t going to take this incident lightly. “Maybe it’s not true that black people are never on time,” says Noah in the video (top). “It’s just that we only know about the ones who show up late, because the early ones got taken away.” These men were arrested for allegedly just “hanging out” at a coffee store, to which Noah points out that doing nothing is “what Starbucks is for.”
Noah dedicated a segment on the show to suggest a perfect solution for when white people call the police for “emergencies” regarding black people. In the video below, correspondents of the show posed as 911 operators equipped to deal with white people’s emergencies. One particular operator is, well, brutal.